How much can a Celebrant earn?

Oct 19
Many people are attracted to becoming a celebrant because it is so creative, varied, flexible and rewarding. But we all have financial commitments and liabilities and so a common question and concern is "How much does a celebrant earn?" 

Being a celebrant is rewarding in many other ways apart from financial. The appreciation and positive feedback you get from clients is amazing. It is very motivating and satisfying.

I have never been appreciated more in what I do than since becoming a professional celebrant. 

But how much do celebrant's get paid?

Will you still be able to pay your bills and enjoy the lifestyle you want? 

Read on and I will show you how much you could earn. 

What can Funeral Celebrants earn?

Most Celebrants start off becoming Funeral Celebrants because 1) there is a higher levels of demand, 2) virtually no start-up costs and 3) a higher turnover of celebrants (you will need to read my other blog posts to understand fully why this is). 

The average funeral celebrant fee in the UK is £250. This fee varies greatly across the UK with places like London and some areas in the South East commanding £350 for a funeral whereas other places in the North of England and other areas in the UK charging  £200 per funeral. To find out what the market fee for funeral celebrants in your area, simply ask a local Funeral Director.

There is no commercial benefit from undercutting the local market rate because although Funeral Directors will book you, it is the family not the Funeral Directors who pay your fee. Funeral Directors would much prefer all their celebrants charge the same fee because this helps to avoid errors and mistakes when quoting and invoicing families.

In order to earn average earnings in the UK (£34,000 gross), a Funeral Celebrant would then need to achieve 136 funerals in a year. This is perfectly achievable because it averages out as being between 2-3 funerals a week over 48 working-weeks in the year.

In order to achieve this, newly trained celebrants need to know how to promote and market themselves effectively to get bookings. It wont happen overnight and it could take between 2-5 years to achieve this level of success. As a result, a would-be Funeral Celebrant needs to have a financial strategy to support them until they get to this level. For example, I had to do A' Level online tutoring and paid freelance business development work for a charity alongside my Funeral Celebrant work in my first year until I got established.

I also had a wife with a successful and established business who could support our household income in case my new Funeral Celebrant venture failed. With hard and know-how, it didn't.

Many people find that starting part-time as a Funeral Celebrant is a good way tp start, especially if your other job is very flexible. For example, could you be a supply teacher, a bank nurse, or an agency worker. Ultimately, you need to have the confidence to tell a Funeral Director who phones you to ask if you can do a funeral in two week's time "YES". The Funeral Director does not need to know what you have to arrange to make this work, but they will want an answer immediately when they call you. They are unlikely to call back or wait for a response.

The common mistake most newly training Funeral Celebrants make is to assume that bookings will come automatically to them. They wont!

When Funeral Celebrants stop making visits to Funeral Arrangers and Funeral Directors, to network and keep in touch with them, very soon the bookings will dry up and stop. Sadly, there is a high turnover of Funeral Celebrants in the industry because many are not prepared to do this quite unglamourous part of the job.
But it is essential. 

In my first 6 months as a Funeral Celebrant I delivered 35 funeral services before the wedding side of my celebrant business took off.

The Funeral Industry is great to break into because once established it is reliable and recession-proof.

However, potential earnings as a Wedding Celebrant are more. 

What can Wedding Celebrants earn?

Whereas Funeral Celebrants rely on local Funeral Directors for bookings and  normally have to take the "market rate" in their area, Wedding Celebrants get bookings directly from engaged couples and so have a lot more control over what fees they wish to charge.

The average Wedding Celebrant fee in the UK is £750 per ceremony. Although again, this varies widely depending upon your location, your experience and your speciality.

In central London, some Wedding Celebrants charge fees that start from £1,800 whereas new wedding celebrants looking to gain experience and their first testimonials may charge a strategic entry-level ceremony fee of  just £250. Once a new wedding celebrant is established and have their initial testimonials, they can find their niche and decide what price they want to charge for the number of weddings they want to perform in their designated area. 

In order to earn average earnings in the UK (£34,000 gross), a Wedding Celebrant charging the average £750 per ceremony would need to deliver 45 weddings in a year. In reality, this means delivering 2 weddings a week (most likely on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday) during the peak wedding season of May through to the end of September.

With between 17-19% of all weddings in the UK last year officiated by a Celebrant (source: Hitched.co.uk and Bridebook) and with about 250,000 weddings every year, this should be achievable but in reality, there are very few Wedding Celebrants conducting 45 weddings in a year. 

Last year I was the most recommended Wedding Celebrant in England on Hitched.co.uk. As a part-time Wedding Celebrant I deliver about 25 weddings a year. When you look at the social media accounts of existing Wedding Celebrants, most are only achieving only a handful of ceremonies. Whilst some will not want to do any more, many simply appear to be ill-advised when it comes to their sales and marketing.

The operating costs of being a Wedding Celebrant is significantly more than a Funeral Celebrant and so this will reduce your net income although all these costs are tax-deductible.

A successful wedding celebrant will need to pay for a website and keep it maintained, they will need to spend time on various social media accounts and spend time creating content. Most wedding celebrants will pay to be listed on various wedding supplier directories, and will need good quality leaflets and marketing brochures and many choose to pay to attend wedding fairs. I also advise newly trained Wedding Celebrants to get a good PA system including microphones as this will increase your attractiveness for couples looking for outdoor ceremonies and it will increase your bookings.  Wedding Celebrants may also have to be prepared to travel further to deliver ceremonies. 

I now earn more as a Wedding Celebrant than I do as a Funeral Celebrant. I like the variety and difference it brings to my work life, but there is no reason why, with the right sales and marketing advice, a Celebrant can earn average earnings of £34,000. 

I only work as a part-time Celebrant (doing both weddings and funerals) because I also run other businesses with my wife including Celebrant Training School.

From my Wedding and Funeral Celebrant work alone I earn on average £30k. It took me 3 years to get established at this level and I was lucky to have the support of my partner and other income to support me whilst I got established. 

Why did I start the Celebrant Training School? 

It is has become my mission to improve the effectiveness and value of Celebrant Training to help more people achieve their dream of becoming a successful professional Celebrant. It can be worth it.




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